Auricom
Auricom Research Industries are an Anti-Gravity racing team based in the United States of America (North America). They are one of the only two teams to have been featured in every game in the series, the other being FEISAR. History Following the dismissal of Delia Flaubert and Holst McQueen from AG Systems, Flaubert founded US-based Auricom within a year. Flaubert believed in Pierre Belmondo's philosophy of the development of AG technology for the good of mankind, and to enforce a comradely competition so that the ultimate winners are the people of Earth. This was her side of the argument while she was still locking horns with McQueen, and as such Belmondo sympathized with her. Using Belmondo's name might have been considered an attempt to provoke McQueen, but whether this was true or not, Auricom and Qirex have always had a fierce rivalry since the beginning. This was quite evident with the rivalries between their pilots in the F3600 League. Their rivalry with Qirex continued as time passed until Qirex's demise in the late 2140s, as a result of the decline of the Russian industrial sector, leading to Qirex being absorbed into Tigron Enterprises, which targeted Auricom as a matter of principle. This, coupled with Auricom's belief that they were the only remaining guardians of Belmondo's ideals after AG Systems' decline, made the Auricom-Tigron rivalry so volatile, and it was even rumoured that the cost of replacing destroyed craft from both the teams over a few seasons ran into billions. Auricom became one of the only teams in the F7200 League to make it to the F9000 League, along with FEISAR and Piranha. Auricom were a favourite champion until the 2156 F9000 League champion Natasha Belmondo left them in favor of Xios International, leading to a fierce rivalry between Auricom and Xios throughout the League. This was later proven with the constant feud between their respective directors and pilots. In 2168, Auricom withdrew from the F9000 because of the increasing corruption and danger of the competition, turning its attention instead to civil programmes, including public transport. Quite surprisingly, it was Auricom that won the 2168 season, with their lead pilot Pascale Rouser claiming the pilot championship title. At least, Auricom had survived the fall of the F9000 League. During the post-fall depression, Auricom continued their civil programmes by making all their efforts to aid the recovery of American societies. After witnessing the success of the amateur FX150 League, they returned to professional AG racing with the formation of the FX300 League in 2197 with a ship considerably faster compared to their previous ships, having developed their engine and shield technologies since they participated in the F9000 League. However, during the League, they struggled to keep up with fellow veterans, as well as newcomers, such as Triakis. Their performance was also somewhat troublesome, as there were many technical tracks in the League. As a result, Auricom had been muted in their preparation for the FX400 League. They also unusually became a late entry, and they even did not release any pre-season test data, leading to assumptions that Auricom could no longer keep up with the professional competition. However, their new ship had shown such great top speed, albeit with a few handling issues, and the team still enjoyed a substantial wealth of resources. Fundamentally, Auricom weren't going to give the Qirex team an easy shot at the League. Since Qirex had been in the League earlier, Auricom now had no choice but to catch up with them. FX400 Background Auricom have been muted in their preparation for the inaugural season of the FX400 Racing League, with little being seen of their new ship outside of private testing. Their entry has also been uncharacteristically late, and nothing is known of their pilot roster for the 2207 campaign. Could the American team be sandbagging or are they running scared? It would be foolish to assume the latter – Auricom still enjoy a wealth of resources, and rumour has it that the new ship has an incredible top end speed, but that test pilots have reported "handling issues". Quite how that will affect one of the longest standing teams in AG Racing will be revealed soon enough. One thing is for sure, Auricom have never resisted the temptation to race against their bitter rivals, Qirex. Come the first race, they'll be ready. FX400 Message Statement by Auricom PR At Auricom we are deep in preparation for the FX400 Racing League. Our development programme remains on schedule and we intend to reveal our racing package at Talon's Junction for the first event of the season. Appearance, Evolution & Stats Auricom may have sported the heaviest craft in the original Wipeout, it was supported by good top speed, and balanced thrust and handling. As such, it was well suited on long tracks with a large amount of weapons used as its weight allowed the craft to withstand weapon fires better than any other craft. In 2097 and Wipeout 3, the Auricom craft was average in every way, though not quite up to FEISAR standard. This craft is a good step up from the AG Systems craft, but still handles well enough to be very useful in the faster speed classes. However, despite the superior shields compared to AG Systems, they are still outmatched by some of the other teams. However, since their appearance in Fusion, Auricom ships have considerably better speed and shield than their predecessors, having developed their speed and shield since rejoining the sport. On the other hand, it all comes at the expense of thrust and handling. Auricom, as it is in Pure, has a great speed, and is also very robust. Despite this, the lack of thrust is the only problem. However, thanks to the decent handling, Auricom has the tightest turning compared to the other heavyweight ships. The Auricom ship in Pulse is slightly different from the Pure model, but retains the traits from Pure, albeit with a slight improvement on thrust at the cost of handling. While the handling is an issue, the ship is considerably more reliable. The Auricom ship model in HD is also slightly different from the previous games, though it is statistically identical to that of Pulse. The Auricom Fury ship, at least has the handling problem solved thanks to the enhancement on this. Along with this, the ship also has a slight increase on thrust. Gallery Auricom2048.jpg|Auricom logo from Wipeout 2048 Auricom2048_B.png|Alternate Auricom logo from Wipeout 2048 Auricomwipeout.png|Auricom logo from Wipeout Auricom2097.png|Auricom logo from Wipeout 2097 Auricomwip3out.png|Auricom logo form Wipeout 3 332815-auricom.gif|Auricom wallpaper from Wipeout 3 Auricomfusion.png|Auricom logo from Wipeout Fusion AURICOM800X600.JPG|Auricom wallpaper from Wipeout Fusion Auricompure.png|Auricom logo from Wipeout Pure Auricompulse.png|Auricom logo from Wipeout Pulse Auricom_1.png|Alternate Auricom logo from Wipeout Pulse Auricom_1024x768.jpg|Auricom wallpaper from Wipeout Pulse Trivia *In Wipeout 3, it says that Auricom was established in 2025. As with the other original teams, this has been ret-conned to 2046. *Their livery colours are similar to the ones of the national flag of the United States of America. Category:Teams